Aston Villa lost to their own U21 side on Friday as Remi Garde watched

 A number of first team regulars played the club's youngsters

Tom Sheen
Monday 22 February 2016 18:19 GMT
Comments
(Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Aston Villa's first-team lost 3-0 to the club's Under-21 side on Friday night in an embarrassing encounter watched by manager Remi Garde.

Villa, bottom of the Premier League, are currently eight points adrift of Norwich City in 17th place, having won just three games out of 26 all season.

With the club out of the FA Cup, French manager Remi Garde played a number of first-team regulars against the U21s in a freindly at their Bodymoor Heath training ground on Friday.

According to Sky Sports, Scott Sinclair, Ciaran Clark, Brad Guzan, Kieran Richardson, Alan Hutton, Ashley Westwood, Jordan Vetetout and Idrissa Gueye were all part of the team.

Leandro Bacuna and Jordan Ayew played for the U21 team.

Garde had even given his players an extra two days off to rest last week with the club not playing.

The Frenchman is expected to again watch the U21s on Monday night as he prepares to make drastic changes to his starting line-up with just 12 games remaining this season.

Villa were thumped 6-0 by Liverpool in their last Premier League game.

Jack Grealish, who has started just one game since November because of injury and off-field issues, could return to the first-team soon.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in